The Trip There
I’d fly Cathay Pacific again. And leaving on a Thursday was a good idea – the plane was half empty, and we were able to spread out comfortably. Joey was good – but his little friend behind us was not. She was maybe a year older, and stayed up way too late and ended up having a huge freak-out episode where she just sat there screaming at her mother and hitting her.
Her poor mom was traveling alone – and at one point when I looked over the seat at her she was looking desperately for a flight attendant while holding an empty bottle – she was very thankful when I offered to take the bottle and hunt down some milk for her little girl. You could feel the relief throughout the cabin when her daughter finally got tired of screaming after about 45 minutes and fell asleep.
We stayed at the HK Marriot near the airport during our 12 hour layover – where I of course had a nice bout of fever. Thank goodness for the comfortable room and bed and heavenly shower. A nice hotel – definitely recommended.
Next morning, back to the HK International Airport. I have to say, it’s HUGE. HUUUUGE. Did I mention HUGE? And a HUGE pain in the ass for someone in a walking cast.
Our flight out was at Gate 64. There were 150 gates, if I remember the signs correctly. It wasn’t immediately obvious that the gates were actually downstairs. We’d follow a sign that pointed right, get there and then see a sign that pointed left, all along passing shops and restaurants. It took some frustrating moments trying to figure out where to go before we realized we had to take an escalator/elevator down to get to our gate.
Arriving in Malaysia
Customs, immigration, luggage retrieval were all blessedly uneventful – except Joey got fidgety while waiting in line for immigration. It was wonderful to see Mo and Dad’s faces and finally relax for a bit.
When we got to Mo’s car Tom’s face looked somewhat concerned when he popped the trunk on the Myvi – until Mo laughed and told him they’d brought Dad’s car too. There was no way the luggage would have fit in Mo’s car with us.
More later…